Read More

A spokesman for Action Fraud said: “Whilst late adopters of the service might look at the email below and simply brush it off, long term users will remember paying and could quite easily think the app has gone back to its subscription model and get caught out.”

Earlier this month similar messages were also sent by text asking users to pay 99p for a lifetime subscription by following a link.

The scam asks for 99p but could cost you everything

And last year users were tricked into downloading an exclusive version of WhatsApp ‘Gold’, which infected Android phones with malware.

Anyone who thinks they have fallen prey to the scam is urged to run antivirus software on their device.